KIZUNA TREE

Premiered in June 2023 at the Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Branch,
co-presented with Detroit Public Television and Rising Voices

Kizuna Tree is an interactive installation/performance collaboration between Detroit Public Television, WDET, Rising Voices, and IS/LAND. Comprised of an Ikebana Tree designed by Celeste Shimoura Goedert of Rising Voices, sound recordings from the collaborative series ‘Kizuna Stories’ from DPTV and WDET by Zosette Guir and Dorothy Hernandez, and dance by AAPI Performance Collaborative IS/LAND, Kizuna Tree is an exploration of communal healing for AAPI peoples, across generations, communities, and ethnicities, connected through words, visuals, and movement. The restorative and healing properties through this physical movement and storytelling offers the audience an experiential exploration of the interactive connections between the dancers with each other, the audience, and the tree itself. 

Kizuna Tree offers both an installation for visitors to interact with through the adding of origami cranes to the tree itself and the performance itself, which is best programmed with three performances for one day. This provides an audience with a site specific and unique experience that will ideally inspire them to carry forward this healing into their lives.

DPTV KIZUNA STORIES

As part of an ongoing series in 2022, Detroit Public Television’s One Detroit, in partnership with WDET-FM (Wayne State University’s NPR affiliate in Detroit), will share one-on-one conversations from those in the AAPI communities across Michigan   and the Midwest, continuing and amplifying an innovative multi-media storytelling project that we’ve already begun after the Atlanta killings in early 2021. The vignettes will be presented online by One Detroit and WDET as well as broadcast on the weekly One Detroit news and public affairs program.

RISING VOICES

Rising Voices is a nonprofit organization that seeks to organize and develop the leadership of Asian American women (cis, trans, Gender Non-Conforming and femme-identifying) and young people for power around progressive values and policy in the state of Michigan.

Performed and Choreographed by Zosette Guir, Catherine Hepler, Kyunghee Kim, S Jean Lee, and Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
Music by Chien-An Yuan